lokifan

Day 10

In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (More than one is okay, too.) Tell us about it, tell us why you love it, give us some examples and recs. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Thinking about this, I actually found the underlying element that ties together a lot of my kinks, both sexual (clothed/naked, humiliation) and narrative (hurt/comfort, forced confessions). That is forced vulnerability. Sometimes in my favourite fics that vulnerability is respected, and other characters are kind in the face of it. Sometimes they’re very much not, which is also fabulous :D

I feel like it’s totally obvious why I love it - it’s deep enough in my id that it’s hard to explain, and of course you share it you just nodded like “yes, of course.” Enemy ships often involve a moment where the enemies recognise that the other person is really a person in the same way they are, and not unrelatedly, vulnerable to hurt - and my love for enemy ships and forced vulnerability is probably pretty chicken-and-egg. (Buffy/Faith, my ultimate OTP, is sooooo good for this. I also have a theory that it’s a significant part of why Harry/Draco shippers love the Sectrumsempra scene so much, and the idea that Harry left scars.) And on the kinkier side, part of why I love Draco getting beaten down so much is his privileged background getting turned all around. The fluffier kinkfic I write does this backwards: it tends to linger on doms being careful of their subs’ sore spots.

It plays into my darker kinks to have vulnerability exploited, and my softer side to have people be kind in the face of it. And I really do believe that respecting vulnerability, whether or not the vulnerable people are good people, is a fundamental requirement of morality and civilisation. It’s a fundamental tenet of my lefty liberalism, now that I think about it. I have strong feelings about civil liberties, about prison reform, and about the end of the death penalty worldwide. For me all those things are deeply connected to the idea that just because the government has physical & legal & psychological power over you doesn’t mean they should use it - in fact, very much the opposite.

Let’s get to the recs before I get any more pompous :D

The Fields of St Herve by

arsenicjade. Remus/Draco; ~33 000 words; NC-17. Summary: Draco’s a bit down on his luck.

This is so beautiful you guys. Arsenic’s prose, and especially her dialogue, is stunning as ever. As ever in her fic it’s not just about the couple; friends are important and there’s a wider sense of community, including queer community. This is down-and-out!Draco recovering, learning that he can trust other people to be kind and to be kind himself. I looooove it.

Draco’s Folly by

ravenna_c_tan. Draco/Harry, Draco/Hermione, Draco/others; ~36 000 words; NC-17. Warnings: non-con, incest, dub-con, violence, humiliation, and consensual kink. Summary: Draco Malfoy has earned a place among the Death Eaters as Voldemort's very "special" inquisitor, using his erotic talents to wring information from Aurors and to torture prisoners in his own way. But nothing is simple in the service of the Dark Lord and Draco is caught between a death-wish and the desires of others.

This is very much a certain flavour of old-school HP fic: we’re all living under Voldemort, time for some super dark sex scenes! I love the character work, especially in some of the Severus/Draco scenes, and the fact that this Draco who’s risen to a height under Voldemort knows full well Voldemort will kill him one day. This fic has several reversals of fortune and sudden vulnerabilities that make me breathless, hence reccing for this theme.

Ask Me No Questions by

alex51324. Loki & the Avengers gen; ~55 000 words; NC-17. Summary: When Thor returns from Asgard to rejoin the Avengers, he brings Loki in tow--stripped of his magic and bound with a geas that allows him to speak only in response to direct questions.

I really like this Loki -- he’s not woobified, and not given too many superpowers by the author, but he’s never truly helpless. I like that Clint’s particular rage at Loki is given space to breathe (even if this is very much Loki’s story) and everything about Bruce, especially his medical ethics, and how Thor, if written as less intelligent than I like, is not stupid, and never gives up in his attempts to reach Loki. (Surrender is not in his nature. ♥) Surprisingly not idfic but still comfort reading for me.

The Veela Enigma by

jennavere. Harry/Draco; ~187 800 words; Explicit; sexual assault. Summary: What if some of Draco's ancestors, pretending to be purebloods, concealed the truth about their veela heritage? You'd end up with one very confused Draco Malfoy, who's fallen head over heels in love with Harry Potter and has no idea why.

This is, overall, a suuuper fluffy, incredibly funny fic. It’s ancient, from the Three Year Summer between GoF and OotP, so be prepared for some different assumptions about characters but it’s held up surprisingly well. The forced vulnerability of Draco’s feelings for his mate, when Harry’s abusive childhood is revealed, when they’re both (particularly Draco) victimised at various points by Voldemort and Death Eaters… It gives me FEELINGS. You should be aware there’s a dub-con scene where a drunken Draco attempts to have sex with Harry though Harry’s saying no, but Draco stops when he realises he hurt Harry and alcohol’s been explained to mess with a Veela’s sense of reality, so I was okay with it.

Without You by

sahiya. Neal & Peter/El-centric gen; ~9700 words; T. Summary: Working for Kramer in D.C., Neal is doing his best to get by until, quite suddenly, he isn't.

AU where Neal ends up working for Kramer to save Peter. And all of the hurt/comfort, as he ends up ill in his horrible new place with no one much interested, until El and Peter swoop in to take care of him. My favourite parts of this: El and Peter taking care of Neal in his horrible flat and making it feel more like home, and how Kramer isn’t a cartoon villain but very realistically awful.

In Which Weasley and Draco Meet At A Sex Club by

titti. Ron/Draco; ~2700 words; NC-17; dub-con, cross-dressing, breathplay, exhibitionism, spanking, orgasm control, D/s. Summary: Weasley walked around like he owned the place, like he owned Draco, radiating confidence with every step.

This is blazingly hot. Sub Draco comes to the sex (kink?) club but never quite gets what he needs. Ron gives it to him. The forced vulnerability thing here is strong: they see each other so Draco’s known for a sub, and then Ron uses the threat of getting Draco kicked out for breaking club rules to push him into playing. It’s a threat but not a serious enough one to put me off - because Draco clearly wants this. And that’s the last and most significant bit of vulnerability of all.